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Baguettes with poolish with My Newly Found Flour!

August 11, 2011 - 12:36am

Mebake

Baguettes with poolish with My Newly Found Flour!

I have finally found a relatively affordable, reliable source for Bread flour in Dubai! I wanted to test run it by baking Poolish baguettes. I have sourced the flour from a local mill. They had always stocked this product, though only sold it upon demand, which seems to be non-existant Market wise. I believe, that only high end western style Artisanal cafes spread around Dubai malls such as PAUL, LE Pain Quotidient, BREAD and Co... etc, would order such a premium Product. Now its Me, too :P

Price wise, I paid Dirhams 144/= for a sack of 50 Kg. of flour, which equals $ 40/=. This is way cheaper than Outlets selling Organic only bread flours for 3 times the price.

The specifications are as follows:

Jenan's Super Premium Flour (50kg Polypropylene Bag)

Protein: 12.5%

Ash: 0.6%

Wet Gluten: 34%

Fortified with Folic Acid and Iron

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As i mixed the poolish with the dough, i realized it was thirstier than my all purpose and Patent flour. Regrettably, i ended up increasing the hydration to around 80% trying to test its resilience, and so the final dough became wetter than i like.

The dough, too, has less carotinoids as apparent from its light cream color, as opposed the cream color of other flours i've tested. And No, i have not overmixed the dough, i only bearly mixed it.

The dough held a good deal of fermentation bubbles, and was smooth and soft.it baked very well with a round cross section, which was a very good result considering the wetness of the dough.

My scoring did not open up, as i needed more practice with such high hydration baguettes. 1 hour into cooling, i sliced my baguettes open, and found all those beautiful cavities. The crust splintered upon cutting, and the flavor was superb! i dipped a shred into olive oil, and i loved the flavor, and crispiness of the flour. Given the hudration, i could not judge on the chewyness, but i'am sure it was moderate.

All in all, i loved this flour. I have yet to test it with other wholegrain recipes.

Comments

I thought of writing about my latest result of my poolish baguette-journey in my today's blog, but glad I didn't and wrote something else, otherwise it would've crashed with yours! :p

Hat off to your determination to hunt down good, locally-sourced flour! I know making a perfect grigne with vey hydration is always difficult, but the airy & holey crumb inside look really great. :)

A bag of 50kg flour would surely give me a nightmare or two of possible bug infection (I know...I'm starting to sound like a broken record....), but with a relative with big stomach for bread like yours, I'm sure you won't have any problem. ;)

Thanks for sharing your experience. I really enjoy reading about my fellow non-French-domicile TFLers' endeavours in searching for good, locally-sourced alternatives to French flours, for it's really comforting to know that "I'm NOT alone!!"

I went as far as sourcing Flour from mills across the border. I admit, that feeling frustrated at one point, i thought of ordering some 2lb king arthur all purpose flour via amazon! it would have cost me 10X airshipped! I'am glad i came back to my senses.

Most apartments in Dubai are airconditioned, and my house is no exception. Without airconditioning, you'd simmer in Dubai scorching summer heat of 45C. My new flour sits happily at 22-24C most of the time, thank God.

LOL I almost understand your frustration and deperation. Thank goodness Amazon's freight charges AND handling charge on top of it is so expensive. That's the only 'voice of reason' to stop me from ordering all sorts of things from abroad! :p

I don't really make you worry too much, especially when you are happy with your new found flour, but 22-24C in England is like warm summer days over here.... and we don't have too many of them over here, you know.....

That's a lovely open crumb, Khalid. And at $40 for 50kgs, that is less than a dollar a kilogram. That is pretty reasonable, although I would have expected it to be even cheaper for such a large amount. You have some exciting baking experiments ahead of you. I look forward to reading about them.

Beautiful baguette and really great that you found a local flour source. You are on the cutting edge of a trend and I am guessing that more will follow in your footsteps. Any other bakers from Dubai on this site? -Varda

Congrats! It's not easy learning to work with a new flour source, but even your first attempt was great. You can, I'm sure, look forward to steady improvement as your familiarity with the handling and baking properties of the flour increase.

Hi, lumos. We are almost at the other end of spectrum here in Dubai, and 22-24 is as comfortable as it gets. My wife shudders when temperature dips below that! Flour seems to be happy at this temperature range too, without humidity though .

Thank you Syd! Flour, as with all basic commodities, is imported to Dubai. Shipping and milling adds the the markup. God willing, I will bake my usuals, and will be assessing the results as compared to my previous bakes.

Thank you Gvz!

Thanks, varda :) There are some few Dubai based TFL members who strive to bake Artisanal loaves at Home. I've been Pm'd by a recent member: MTulloss. She lives in Dubai, and was serious about Home baking. I have seen other members who lived in Dubai, but no longer post here. I'll try to spread the word about the flour, i'm sure, though, that most here can afford the pricey Uk Organic flours sold in Dubai.

Thank you Chefscook!

Thank you Salma! What an Idea to break the fast, i'll try it, thanks :)

Thank You Andy! It is a relief to be able to find a reliable replenishable source of Good flour, in a city where Bread flour is not present on most store shelves.

Thank you SF :) I'll try your Frozen Biga with this flour soon!

Thank you David! Perseverence is Key here, especially in a community who knows little, if any, about Bread Flour.

So glad you found a source for good, affordable flour. Handy that the mill offers some flour specifications. Re: Wet Gluten, I've never heard of, or seen that specification listed before. :^) from breadsong

Thanks, breadsong. There are several other "technical" specifications you will not likely be told unless you contact the mill's sales / technical department, such as falling number, Gluten Index, Dough rheology numbers, .. The Sales Department of Jenan where discrete about their Premium Flour's speceifications, until i convinced them that it is for domestic use, not commercial. Even then, they only verbally disclosed some technical info. about the flour.

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